CMS Makes Pacemaker Procedure Volume Data Available to the Public
On January 18th, CMS added procedure volume data for the first time on the Medicare.gov compare tool’s physician profile pages. This tool helps patients find and compare different types of providers and to compare select quality ratings.
The procedure volume data initially added to physician profile pages covers 12 procedures, including "pacemaker insertion or repair." Each procedure is accompanied by a plain language description and an indication of where the physician falls in a volume distribution compared to their peers who perform the same procedure. The data are based on the number of procedures performed in the last 12 months for Original Medicare and Medicare Advantage patients. CMS plans to add data on additional procedures in the future.
CMS has published clinician utilization data in a downloadable database format since 2017 but never on the patient-facing physician profile pages. These and other large clinician-focused data sets can be found through the Provider Data Catalog (PDC), which now includes a procedure volume data file reflective of the information currently available on clinician profile pages.
The CMS fact sheet provides more information about the agency's decision to make physician procedure volume data available to the public, what data are available, and how they are displayed for public review.